We all know there is an industry to sell courses to both experienced and beginning hosts. For months I have been researching these gurus and their activities by joining their Facebook groups and etc. for content. There are a lot of Gurus charging thousands of dollars for their courses and then thousands for personal mentorships. I have also found that these hosts acquire a lot of debt from these courses, mentorships, and start up costs to do as these gurus instruct. I have also found that these hosts become very desperate six months to a year into their new business venture to break even on their investment using credit. So how do these gurus keep milking their students/victims? By selling their students information to another industry that will contact the hosts and sell a service to boost their rankings for more bookings. Also these gurus refer their students to these these companies as part of their expensive course. Now I don’t have evidence yet that these gurus are getting a commission from referrals, but common sense tells me they are. Why else would they they suggest these companies in their course? This all came to my attention one day when I started to message potential Facebook group members applying to my short term rental Facebook groups. I only messaged the people applying that had suspicious profiles that didn’t have any short term rental history and lived in third world countries. Almost none would reply to me. But over time a few did and admitted they were working for a company that pays them to spam a list of short term rental properties. One of these actually lives in Mauritius where my wife is from and we spend several months a year visiting family. This person really gave me a lot more information about this spamming industry. She told me that she found out about the job thru Facebook for sale groups in Mauritius promising to pay 10,000 Rupees a month for part time work. That equals around $300 USD. Her company provides her with all the names of the groups a list of properties to promote from the company’s website. To keep her job she has a quota to maintain every month. Now she told me that the company she works for also has clients for a vast array of other promotions besides short term rentals. She can pick and choose on the company’s website which niche she feels better and knowledgeable to promote. So this is what desperate hosts are buying into. These companies don’t promise more bookings but promise higher search and views.
Not surprised at all FB is a cesspool. They are dead to me after the last election.
RR
you may have to dumb that massive paragraph down a bit for me
I’m not exactly sure what the point is, except “don’t get scammed.” Does anyone wonder why hosts on this forum get so agitated when some user signs up to promote some service?
@RiverRock everything is what you make of it, including social media. I admin several short term rental groups including a group created by Airbnb for my market. I screen the members very well for some and allow the scammers in some just to expose their true intentions so the other members can take their turn.
You wouldn’t believe the number of spammers asking to join these groups everyday. This is one of the reasons admins ask for moderators to help out the screening.
Wow! Thanx for the info. I never would have come across it since I don’t do those types of things but good to know what the scams are.
Interesting. Has it ever backfired?
No backfires yet. The group Airbnb created for me is very easy to vette members because these hosts have to be located in my market. The group I created was originally created to spoof/satire other short term rental groups that were created as a marketing funnel to sell these scams. So I allow anyone to join and very soon the scammers reveal their scams. So the members and I call them out and fun at their expense. When I allow a known scammer from my experience with them in other groups, I welcome them and at the same time warn the other members to beware of the member. They are only here to sell you a course or other service. Usually these new spamming members leave the group very fast or stay and never post or comment. Since I have joined this forum, my trolls here have joined just to troll me on Facebook. LOL. They don’t realize that I love my trolls! They are free entertainment and content.
Don’t flatter yourself Jim you don’t have any trolls here.
RR
I don’t know how Facebook security works under the hood, but I would be worried that by allowing them into a private group, the scammers would get access to the profiles of all the people in the group. There were obvious holes (intentional or not) in the security around their information sharing just 3 years ago. It would be naive to think they have closed them all.
Aren’t you the one shrieking, “Kendrick! Kendrick! Kendrick!” here all the time?
Please, take your meds and sit down quietly somewhere.
Please don’t tell me that the $$$ I just sent to Nigeria to help out a pour soul was also a scam AND that my investment in HICHUP is never going to pay off.
I just couldn’t handle it. 
There is nothing which makes me gloss over a post more than the lack of properly executed paragraphs.
Heck, even poorly use of the CR/Enter key beats the mass of text illustrated in post #1 of this discussion.
Carry on.
Hate to break it to you, but as @RiverRock said, you’re flattering yourself. However, never let it be said that I’m unreasonable, so I’m going to put the onus on you now, back up your claim with names and incidences of when anyone here actually took the effort to troll you on Facebook.
You don’t provide usernames etc then we’ll just have to put you down as someone who, if like @CeeBee alluded to, is madder than a box of frogs.
Yeah well, never did get a discount on my fried chicken from that @KKC woman. Not sending her another twenty seven thousand euros again, at least not till I get my discount at the chicken House!!!
JF
Just thought I’d give this a bump for @Jim_Haines.
So what is it Jim, names/usernames and incidences or are you that box of frogs?
JF